The Guardian is reporting that the British Council might have to close up shop in 40 to 60 countries in the near future. The organization has been asked to draw up two sets of spending plans – one in which it receives no increase in funding from the British government, and another in which it receives 2% less than at present. Both scenarios would result in a significant scaling back of operations.
This is quite sad. The British Council is many things. To me, it is a testing firm which does good work and gives back to the communities it operates in. More than other testing firms.
It has been argued that cuts to the funding of the British Council might have a negative impact on the UK’s soft power and national security.
I’m unsure of how this might affect the BC’s delivery of the IELTS test. Here in Seoul tests are delivered both at BC’s self-operated “headquarters” and at a test center located in a tutoring center. I suppose other countries are similar.
As has been discussed on the blog a few times, the financial situation of the British Council has been recently impacted by a couple of things: a large loan taken out during the pandemic and the sale of its lucrative IELTS operations in India to IDP Education.